This paper provides a snapshot of agriculture solutions that are emerging through information and communication technologies. It describes how these solutions are beginning to be used to fight hunger, reduce poverty, advance education, protect the environment and improve health.

Executive summary

New ways of using IT technologies and communication systems are transforming lives across the world. There had been concerns that the digital divide was creating wider gaps between the haves and have-nots. If this was the case 10 years ago, the recent changes in mobile subscriptions alone have significantly closed that gap. Mobile services are a reality in virtually all corners of the world. For many millions of smallholder farmers and traders, mobiles phones have become an essential “tool of the trade,” strengthening existing business ties and opening up new opportunities with huge reductions in transaction times and cost.

This paper asks “How is information and communication technology (ICT) being used in agricultural development?” It outlines, using case study examples, how ICT applications for the agriculture sector range from the highly sophisticated, fully integrated chain-wide agri-business service packages used by the most commercial farmers, down to basic voice and text messaging that is being used very effectively by less resourced smallholder farmers and traders for all stages of the food production process: harvesting, processing, logistics to sales and marketing. To take advantage of this marketplace, the private sector, NGOs and governments are investing in a range of new tools to link farmers with assets, services and markets.

Five years ago, most ICT services for agriculture were confined to the top segment of farmers. The rapid rise in ICT technologies is now spreading into the smallholder agriculture sector and being used by a growing number of agricultural companies, development organizations, nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) and farmers.

Despite the massive uptake of mobile phones by agricultural producers, there are few quantitative studies that provide hard evidence of a link between technology and poverty reduction. Those studies that have explored this, however, found that farmer access to market information through radio, mobile phones and internet resulted in higher farm-gate prices and a better bargaining position with local traders.

To make good on the promise of ICT transformation, however, organizations from the public and private sectors will need to create new types of partnerships and business networks with the millions of smallholder farmers in the developing world. Some general recommendations for ensuring these technologies contribute to sustainable and equitable development include: